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Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Monthly Faves: July 2015

*Nonchalantly returns to monthly post I've forgotten about like 3 months in a row*

*Acts as if I've been completely consistent*

Seriously though I am so on top of it this month. I had a page in my blogging journal specifically dedicated to noting cool things I found during the month that I wanted to share with you. Aren't you proud of me?

Well I'm proud of me. Anywho, without further ado here are my faves from this past month!

Blogs

JoieFatale is a beautiful mix of fangirl and fitness inspiration, and turned out to be exactly what I needed this month to get my ass in gear. While all her posts are nerdy and wonderful, what really sets her blog apart are her workout cosplays. She has put together workout outfits based on a variety of characters, ranging from Garnet from Steven Universe, to Ana and Elsa from Frozen, to the Colossal Titan from Attack on Titan. Any fangirl looking for a way to represent some fandom pride at the gym is sure to find something on her blog. When I asked where she got the idea for her workout cosplays this is what she told me:

"...I wanted to feel empowered with me working out. Since cosplay is one of my goals on losing [weight]...I figured making cosplay a part of the workout progress was ideal for me."

Go get empowered with her. You're sure to find something that will encourage you to get back on track with whatever your fitness/health goals might be, and probably another show or 20 that you need to add to your Netflix queue. And stay tuned for a really cool collaboration we're planning together!

2. Tea Time Tails
Amanda and I decided shortly after discovering each other that we were pretty much blogger twins. We just share a certain nerd frequency, you know? I initially fell in love with her blog because I was just so excited to have found another gamer in the blogging world, but it was realness and honesty of her posts that kept me around. When I was trying to fit the "blogger image"- whatever that even means- Amanda was unapologetically sharing her inner nerd, struggles she was facing at a given time, and whatever else she damn well pleased. And I love her for that. Reading her blog is a big part of how I realized just how much of me was absent from my blog, and that I was allowed to change that. Definitely pop over and check her out; she'll make a fabulous addition to your bloglovin feed.

Podcasts

I got super into podcasts this month. I never used to listen to them, because I had a hard time paying attention to them. I'm a very visual person and without anything for my eyes to do I wound up getting distracted and forgetting I was supposed to be listening, but after starting my own podcast, I figured I should probably start listening to others'. To solve this problem I started listening when I was doing the dishes or taking a shower, stuff that lent itself to focusing on something else at the same time. And now I'm addicted. Here are the best ones I found this month!

Okay so I don't live under a rock and Nightvale was on my radar long before this month. I actually tried listening to it a few years ago when it got really popular, and when I decided I was determined to start listening to podcasts, this is the first one I went to. For those of you who don't know, Welcome to Nightvale is a story based podcast told in the form of a radio show for the secluded desert town of Nightvale. The strangeness of the town is made immediately obvious and is really the driving force behind the podcast. It is weird and slightly creepy and just so, so good. It is also really great if, like me, you like things that take not-so-subtle digs at problematic political and social institutions (racism, xenophobia, etc), sort of like The Onion does with its headlines. Oh, and the character cast of this podcast is more diverse than pretty much anything coming out of mainstream storytelling at the moment. As a whole it is a bit hard to explain, but I would highly recommend checking it out.

I am seriously in love with this podcast. Nerdette is a podcast hosted by Greta Johnsen and Tricia Bobeda that is meant to be a fun safe space for nerds of all passions to share what they love. Every episode features a different guest who shares what their particular passion is. The great thing about this podcast is that you can find something for you no matter what it is you're nerdy about. History? Here's an interview with narrative non-fiction writer Erik Larson. Science? How about this episode with nuclear engineer (and former Survivor contestant) J'Tia Taylor. There is even an episode where they spoke with the creators of Weclome to Nightvale, which is a great one to listen to if you want a better explanation of it than what I just gave, though it contains some brief spoilers. I really love this podcast because it introduces you to little pieces of things that other people are really passionate about that you might not otherwise be exposed to or spend time thinking about. I'm not a science person at all, but I really love listening to the episodes with science-y people because it makes it accessible to me. There is just nothing better than listening to someone talk about what they're super passionate about, no matter what it is.

If there were ever lyrics that demanded to be shouted from the rooftops "I CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS I CAN WORK A MIRACLE, WORK A MIRACLE" would be them.

That about wraps out this months favorites. I am hopeful that next month I'll also be able to include books and/or t.v. shows, etc, but July was just kind of crazy and I did not do a whole lot of reading or watching anything. Hopefully I can get my shit together for August, but who knows.

Also I felt like my blog was distinctly lacking in GIFs. I just really feel like that was a thing this site needed. How do you all feel about that?